No. 2 Seed Huskers Earn Five All-Big Ten Honors

By NU Athletic Communications

| 03/18/2013

The No. 9 Nebraska women's gymnastics team placed five gymnasts on the 2013 Big Ten All-Conference teams, the league office announced on Monday. The Huskers were also named the No. 2 overall seed in the Big Ten Gymnastics Championships slated for this Saturday, March 23 in East Lansing, Mich.

Four Huskers earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for their performances throughout the season. Jessie DeZiel, Janelle Giblin and Emily Wong all took home their second first-team awards in two seasons, while Jennifer Lauer earned her first career honor. Brittany Skinner also picked up second-team accolades.

DeZiel is the conference's No. 5 all-around performer, holding an RQS of 39.475 and a high score of 39.675 this season. She is also ranked in the Big Ten's top 10 on three individual events, tying for first on vault (9.910), third on bars (9.895) and 10th on beam (9.845). DeZiel has earned two career first-team All-Big Ten selections.

Giblin secured her first-team all-conference spot by tying for third on bars with an RQS of 9.895. She has been one of the nation's top performers on bars throughout the season, earning a 10.0 against Iowa in early March. Giblin's All-Big Ten selection is the senior's third career all-conference honor.

Jennifer Lauer was named to the All-Big Ten first team based on her beam ranking: the sophomore is tied for fifth in the conference, holding an RQS of 9.870. She leads the Huskers in beam titles earned this season, logging top honors on the event in four meets.

Wong is tied for the No. 1 spot in Big Ten all-around competition with an RQS of 39.550. The junior is third on beam (9.890) and floor (9.920) and is also tied for first on bars (9.90) in the conference. She has earned 19 event titles this season, including six in the all-around. Her first-team award marks the second all-conference selection of her career.

Skinner captured the No. 7 spot in the conference vault rankings, holding an RQS of 9.895. She has tied her career-high mark of 9.925 on the event three times this season and owns three vault titles in 2013. Her second-team All-Big Ten honor gives the senior her first career all-conference award.

All-Big Ten honorees were chosen based on a new selection process this season. The top ten student-athletes were allotted points based on their Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) standing, with 10 points given to the No. 1 ranked athlete and one point given to the No. 10-ranked athlete. All points from each event and in the all-around were then combined, with ties given the same number of points. The student-athletes with the 12 highest point totals were named to the first team, while the next 12 captured second-team accolades.

Nebraska will open postseason action this weekend on Saturday, March 23 at the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich. Nebraska's No. 2 seed will place them in the evening session at 5 p.m. CT with Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State. The afternoon session will take place at noon CT with competition between Illinois, Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan State. Both sessions of the championship meet will air live on BTN.